I have bagged on Twitter in the past, online and in print. Since then I have chilled out considerably and become a regular — if still pretty lite — Twitter user. One thing I’ll say for the Twittersphere, it’s a hell of a lot more welcoming and supportive than the blogosphere. You’re much less likely to have people randomly pouring venom on you with little provocation. People tweet at you. You tweet at them. You retweet each other. It’s a big happy Smurf village.

Still, I can’t see any possible outcome from Twitter other than acquisition by Google. No other company has both the cash and the willingness to support a technology with so little potential for any kind of direct monetization. And if it comes to that, Google has the necessary light touch for adding advertising, like some kind of mildly distasteful condiment, to a medium, like they have with YouTube.

Mark my words. Years from now — like a child’s scribblings retrieved from a time capsule by Nicholas Cage — this blog will emerge as the key to the Internet’s future.